The Pirate Treasure

Pine Tree Middle School November Students of the Month are six graders Hadleigh Knight and Kayleb Rubio. Fifth graders are William Amaya and Peyton Evans.

This month has been filled with activities and fun days for the 12 days of Christmas. Ugly Christmas sweater winners this year are Mrs. Ednie, Mrs. Elmore and Mrs.Guerra. Middle School 5th and 6th grade Choir performed a wonderful Christmas concert at the Pine Tree Auditorium last week.

Our student council has issued an elf for each teacher on campus and now the elves are hiding all over the school. Students must find an elf to win a prize, so we are looking forward to how many elves are found this week. Aspen Taylor found Ms. Mitchell’s Elf and won a bag of sweet treats.

Six Pine Tree Middle School robotics teams competed in the Pirates Full Volume VEX IQ robotics competition at Pine Tree Junior High on Saturday, December 9. There were 33 teams at the competition from grades 3-8. Five of the six PTMS teams made it to the finals. Zippy Chippy, driven by Grace Richardson, and guest driver Jade Goodloe finished in 4th place in the finals. This was our 3rd competition in the last two weeks and growth has been seen from each competition.

Teachers of the month are Caleb Epnett and Tiara Kyle. Mr. Epnett teaches 6th grade Reading and Mrs. Kyle teaches 5th grade Reading. Each received a new pirate ship for their rooms.

We wish everyone a happy holiday season from all of our friends at the Middle School.

Staff Party

When it comes to celebrations, the administrators of Birch Elementary take things to a new level. For the 2023 Christmas holiday, our staff enjoyed a thrilling fiesta at the world renowned Papacita's Restaurant. The dinner consisted of cheesy enchiladas, piping hot tamales, spicy beef enchiladas, scrumptious rice and delectable rice. Our administrative staff planned a delightful game of “Right/Left Christmas Adventure” gift exchange for our faculty to enjoy. Squeals were heard throughout the restaurant as teachers happily opened their gifts.

The BFF now has durable yet stylish Pine Tree fleece pullovers to wear during the frightfully cold winter months. These amazing wardrobe items were gifted to us by our phenomenal administrative team. Thank you, Mr. Stuard and Mrs. Clugston. We have a feeling that Santa has placed you both on his NICE list!

CBA Parades

Our teachers work diligently to prepare our students to achieve their goals on their CBA tests throughout the year. The students gain confidence in their abilities through the CBA parades. BFF recently held CBA parades where students strolled through the halls as their schoolmates cheered them on with words of affirmation. This event boosted their spirits to conquer any tough question on their CBA exams. At Birch, focus on GROWTH leads us to accomplish anything!

3rd Grade Music Program

Our Birch cafeteria transformed into a magical land of Elflandia as our third graders sang jolly tunes celebrating the Christmas season. Students were decked out in their holiday apparel as the audience members clapped and jived to their lively songs. This wonderful moment allowed our BFF to leap into the holiday season. Mrs. Meadows, Birch Elementary's music teacher, continues to outdo herself on each performance, and we are truly grateful for her dedication to growing our students’ musical talents.

First Semester Comes to an End

The first semester has come to a close for Pine Tree High School, and it has been a successful one with plenty of good things from students. It has also been one that has seen some changes as well.

Beeper Kraus ends his first nine weeks as high school principal with some great things happening on campus. Choir and Band have advanced several students in competitions, while Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses have also advanced students into a busy second semester as well.

Classes have progressed smoothly and, thus far, there have been few major disruptions in the instructional day. Basketball is in full swing with both the girls and boys teams having good seasons thus far. The girls have won 11 games thus far and start district this week-the most wins that program has seen in six years. The boys also have a winning record and are heading into a full tournament schedule before starting district after the first of the year.

Boys and girls soccer opened scrimmages this past week. Both are favored to do well in their respective districts. Powerlifting also is getting underway, and Pine Tree has been a powerhouse in both boys and girls the past three years and is expected to be so again. Coaches Cody Ellis and Roderick Portley are stacked with returning lifters this year, and they are ranked in the top of the region and expected to send a host of students to the state competition.

Theatre is already involved in One Act Play. Chris and Nicole Dickson have lined up a powerful cast and crew to go with a powerful production. They are not announcing the production as of yet so as not to tip their hand to competitors.

UIL Academics finished second in the Lindale meet and will host another big competition in January. The team is favored to send a bounty of students to regionals with hopes they can move on to state.

Classes are busy for students and faculty as well. Even though the year is half over, many classes are well into major projects that are the focus of the instruction.

Rest will be a major thing for students and faculty as Christmas arrives, and the two week break off will give everyone a chance to catch their breath and then get ready for a busy second semester.

In Mrs. Storms's class students are learning to label our pictures with the beginning sounds so Santa will be able to read our letters. The students saw Santa in person this semester!

The Big Kahuna winners had so much fun at Cici’s Pizza & our Gregg County Museum trips were a blast!

Our staff ugly sweater contest was so much fun. The Primary Staff sure likes to show off on dress-up days!

December 16- January 2, 2024

We hope all our little pirates have a safe and blessed winter break. We will see you all next year!!

Our fabulous music teacher, Mrs. Karling, had an eventful past two weeks with her 4th grade music show and Jolly Roger Jam Band tours. The holiday season was kicked off on November 30th with the 4th grade students performing Karaoke Christmas. The students rocked it out with different Christmas songs from different eras. It was such a beautiful and fun performance. Not only did they perform their hearts out, the 4th grade teachers and principals got in on the action as well. Our amazing 4th grade team and principals assisted in leading Parkway’s tradition of Christmas sing-alongs.

The Jolly Roger Jam Band went on their annual Christmas tour around Longview. They went to different banks to sing and perform Christmas songs. The students brought much joy and cheer to downtown Longview. They woke up Saturday morning to perform at the high school for Breakfast with Santa. Mrs. Karling and her Jam Band had so much fun and deserve a little break before they go full swing for their spring tour.

1st Grade: Antavian Hyder- Ms. Coleman

2nd Grade: Cody Marsh- Ms. Willis

3rd Grade: Abigail Smith- Ms. Pugh

4th Grade: Julissa Lozano- Ms. Utpadel

Pine Tree Junior High was visited by The Grinch on Friday, December 8th, as students dismissed for the day. The Grinch stole a few Christmas presents from under the Junior High tree in the foyer and stayed for pictures with our students to end our week! Our kiddos loved it! Thank you Mr. Grinch!

On Saturday, December 9th, the Junior High hosted a robotics competition that featured Junior High students on the following teams: Orange Fanta, Tech Titans, The Fantastic Force, The Mechanics, Tokyo Drift 2.0, The Gold Diggers, Chicken Tenders, and Polymer People. All teams competed well.

PTJH finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th place. The 1st place trophy was earned by The Mechanics which also qualified this team for the state robotics competition. The Tech Titans won The Excellence Award which is awarded based on several criteria related to their performance, their engineering notebook, and their team interview. This team also qualified for state! Way to go Pirates!This was the first time PTJH has hosted a robotics competition. Great job, Coach Amanda Dalston, in coaching, planning and hosting this incredible event!

Our CTE Web Communications/CEER/Technology Coordinator, Ms. Heather Brantley, hosted an Immersive Ai/AR/VR event for our teachers on Friday, December 8th. Teachers were invited to stop by her classroom during their conference periods to learn and practice how to use some cutting edge technology to enhance their classroom lessons. It was a fun event that our staff

really enjoyed! Thank you, Ms. Brantley!

Our amazing Student Council elves have been busy wrapping Christmas gifts for a great cause! Mrs. Snapp was ready to assist in any way. The students experienced some great good wrapping practice for this upcoming holiday season! Great job, STUCO!

Congratulations to the Pine Tree PACE Challenge Coin recipient for December 2023, Jack Manasco, PACE Social Studies Instructor. The PACE campus was provided the opportunity to participate in the Junior Achievement of East Texas Finance Park.

This project required the completion of seven pre-lessons for participation. Mr. Manasco accepted the challenge and ensured that the students were equipped with the knowledge to engage in the Finance Park.

PTHS students participated in the Junior Achievement Finance Park. Junior Achievement staff and volunteers supported the students in a 4 hour simulation based on real life economic scenarios. Thank you to the Greater Longview United Way & Junior Achievement of East Texas for the collaboration and vision to empower our students in financial literacy.

Shout out to Ms. Taylor and the ABU Elementary team for decorating their door for the holidays! The theme was a gingerbread house with gingerbread men.

ExCEL would like to congratulate the Student of the Month for November, Garrett Sellers. Garrett came to ExCEL a few weeks after school started this year. He moved here from Arkansas to assist his grandparents. He chose ExCEL instead of the traditional classroom setting because he wanted to be able to graduate as soon as possible. He really loves the pace at which he can work at ExCEL.

Garrett has plans to attend trade school after graduation, possibly at Texas State Technical College in Waco. He hopes to pursue a career in HVAC and welding.

When asked to describe himself he struggled, with that but eventually said "I'm not mean or anything!" In fact, Garrett says the quality he most appreciates in people is respectfulness. His English teacher, Jennifer Wilbur, says he is quiet and very motivated. It is no doubt his motivation and determination that has allowed him to have already completed seven courses this semester!

Garrett says his motivation comes from within as he is a very self-motivated person.

In his spare time, Garrett enjoys the outdoors. One of his favorite outdoor activities is fishing although he says he loves just about anything outdoors. Garrett has truly proven to be a great example to his fellow classmates and we are glad he chose ExCEL!

Congratulations to the PTHS Journalism team who recently competed in two virtual tournaments! The CenTex Invitational Virtual Academic Meet had more than 3,370 entries divided into thirty-two judging conferences. The PTHS team earned twelve places in their conference.

Continuing their success, the PTHS Journalism team earned the 1st place journalism team trophy in the Texas Tech University Virtual Meet. The team is led by Melissa Wright.

CENTEX NEWS

10th – Rachel Malloy

CENTEX FEATURE

2nd – Rachel Malloy

8th – Jennifer Chen

CENTEX EDITORIAL

3rd – Jennifer Chen

8th – Liv Brannon

10th – Zori Clark

CENTEX HEADLINE

1st – Jennifer Chen

7th – Tristan Guire

10th – Stanford O’Quinn

CENTEX COPY EDITING

6th – Jennifer Chen

8th – Lucia McCree

TTU EDITORIAL

2nd – Jennifer Chen

3rd – Rachel Malloy

TTU FEATURE

2nd – Jennifer Chen

3rd – Rachel Malloy

6th – Lucia McCree

TTU HEADLINE

3rd – Jennifer Chen

5th – Tristan Guire

TTU NEWS

3rd – Jennifer Chen

4th – Liv Brannon

6th – Rachel Malloy